Book Binge

After a small hiatus from buying books -- I'm trying to keep the acquisition of all things under control, with moderate success in the books department -- I went on a proper binge and now have a stack of new reading to commence. Is there any pleasure quite so quietly delicious as a fresh stack of books?

This one was a recommendation from a friend. It sounds like it's right up my alley, given the general tenor of my life and what's been happening lately (more on this later). I'm excited about reading it.

My new beau (more on this later) knows that a nice lunch and a bookstore visit is just what I need to turn a difficult day into a better one, even more improved by the purchase of a new novel. In this case it's a Pulitzer winner. 

He also gave me a bookstore gift card and I spent it . . . and then some! It's a delightful side effect of list reading that there are always new and interesting books to add to the TBR pile. These are all Florida Book Award medalists. 

List reading has a way of taking you somewhere you didn't know you wanted to go. I can't wait to get started!

Color Coded Reading Challenge 2026 - My Sign-Up

I'm in for another year! Reading by color is one of my favorite ways to choose books. I'm not sure why I like it so much, but it definitely makes me pull books I might otherwise not get around to and put them front and center.

Bev at My Reader's Block runs this challenge smoothly and efficiently, and she's very tolerant of folks like me who produce reviews in a tidal wave at the last minute. 

Sign up here -- you can join anytime during 2026.

Here are my books for this year:

Blue: North Sun or The Voyage of the Whaleship Esther - Ethan Rutherford

Red: Milk Blood Heat - Dantiel W. Moniz (Florida Book Award)

Yellow: Crimes in a Second Language - Elizabeth Sims (Florida Book Award)

Green: Trust - Hernan Diaz (Pulitzer Prize)

Brown: Without a Paddle: Racing Twelve Hundred Miles Around Florida by Sea Kayak - Warren Richey

Black: Cigar City: Tales from a 1980s Creative Ghetto - Paul Wilborn (Florida Book Award)

White: Reading the River: A Voyage Down the Yukon - John Hildebrand 

Another color (gray): Matters of Faith - Kristy Kiernan (Florida Book Award)

Implies Color (rainbow): The Antidote - Karen Russell   

Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2025 - My Wrap-Up

So much for optimism. I should have stuck with realism.

This challenge is a good motivator and I started strong (as usual) and then faded (also pretty much as usual). Oh, well.

In 2026 I will drop back to the doable goal of Pike's Peak (12 books). It's shaping up to be a busy year for me, so a more moderate goal seems like a wise choice.

Here's what I read in 2025 from the TBR pile, though:

1. The Great Hippopotamus Hotel - Alexander McCall Smith 

2. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith 

3. The Beast and the Silent Blue - David O'Connor (Florida Book Award) 

4. Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver (Pulitzer Prize)

5. Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys (Radcliff's Top 100 Novels)

6. My Name is Asher Lev - Chaim Potok (Pulitzer Prize) 

7. A Visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan (Pulitzer Prize)

8. Half the Night is Gone - Amitabha Bagchi (DSC Prize for South Asian Literature) 

9. Matrix - Lauren Groff (Florida Book Award) 

10. The Rural Life - Verlyn Klinkenborg

11. The Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons from Working Together - Twyla Tharp 

12. Alexander Hamilton - Ron Chernow 

13. His Lovely Wife - Elizabeth Dewberry (Florida Book Award) 

14. The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature - J. Drew Lanham 

15. Infinite Country - Patricia Engel 

Reviews can be accessed here or under the Reviews tab.

This was a mixed bag of cozy mystery, classics, award-winning fiction, random nonfiction, biography, and memoir. That's one of the charms of this challenge: because my reading taste is eclectic, so are the books!

Color Coded Reading Challenge 2025 - My Wrap-Up

 

I made it! With a flurry of December reviews and a couple of days to spare! 

I love reading by color and next year will be my 10th year of participating. I plan to sign up again as soon as I finish with 2025.

Here's what I read:

Blue: Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys (Radcliff's Top 100 Novels)

Red: A Visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan (Pulitzer Prize)

Yellow: The Beast and the Silent Blue - David O'Connor (Florida Book Award)

Green: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith 

Brown: My Name is Asher Lev - Chaim Potok (Pulitzer Prize)

Black: His Lovely Wife - Elizabeth Dewberry (Florida Book Award) 

White: The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt (Pulitzer Prize) Substitute: The Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons for Working Together - Twyla Tharp

Another color (teal): Half the Night is Gone - Amitabha Bagchi (DSC Prize for South Asian Literature) 

Implies Color: Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver (Pulitzer Prize)

Reviews can be found here or under the Reviews tab.

This was a year of variety and that's part of the fun. I started out strong and then fell into the summer doldrums, but I stayed with my goals, for the most part. The white book required a last-minute substitution when it became apparent that I would never finish the hefty first choice in time, so I opted for something sleeker. Otherwise, all good and on to 2026. 

But first, stay tuned for the report of my miserable fails on my other 2025 challenges. 

Another Set of Reviews, Quick and Dirty

I love using the phrase "quick and dirty," although I have to be careful when. Not everyone knows it comes from the early days of computers, which were also the early days of space flight. If you don't have time to do everything just right, you figure out what matters and what doesn't, ignore what doesn't matter, and meet your deadline. The result might not be perfectly elegant, but it will work.

Hence, the briefest of reviews:

In the Time of Five Pumpkins - Alexander McCall Smith: These books are the ultimate cozily gentle mysteries, with familiar characters, a soothing delivery, occasional surprises and twists, and plenty of quiet humor. I have read them all and I love them. A full review is not possible; they are simply too pleasant, familiar, and delightful to sink into and enjoy.

Matrix - Lauren Groff: Taking its inspiration from history, Groff's novel begins as young Marie de France is banished from the royal court to become the prioress of a poor abbey. Too everyone's surprise, including her own, Marie thrives there -- learning to navigate the personalities of the sisters, deal courageously with the townsfolk and those who would "manage" her authority, discover her strengths, and confront her own limits and weaknesses. Groff is a master at finding a contemporary viewpoint that illuminates historical situations.

The Rural Life - Verlyn Klinkenborg: Organized by month, this small volume reflects the passage of time amidst the changes of the natural year as they play out across various landscapes. Klinkenborg has a beautiful eye for details and an economy of expression that enlighten and never interferes. Whether he's writing about Iowa, the American West, or upstate New York, you will feel like you've been there.  

The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature - J. Drew Lanham: Lanham mixes memories of growing up close to the land in South Carolina with episodes from his career as a professor of ecology. Along the way he examines how the forces of slavery shaped his family and how his racial identity continues to affect him as a black man in a predominantly white field. This is a serious book with serious themes, infused with a love of nature and the outdoors, and affection for Lanham's family and colleagues who join him there. 

Infinite Country - Patricia Engel: This multigenerational novel follows Talia, a young Colombian girl on the lam from a juvenile correctional facility, as she tries to travel home to safety and the plane ticket that her father has waiting for her, so she can join her mother in America. Along the way we learn how her parents changed from teenaged lovers to a husband and wife divided by immigration, opportunity, and culture. Talia and her family bring life to the challenges faced by the undocumented every day.  

Note: These books all count towards the Mount TBR Reading Challenge. Which I failed miserably, by the way.

Two Lovelies

In her novel His Lovely Wife, Elizabeth Dewberry presents what my witchy friends might call a "woo woo" experience as something that doesn't seem all that far-fetched. And as anyone who's even a little bit "woo woo" can tell you -- or in fact, as any scientist can tell you -- the far reaches of experience and the far reaches of science can be remarkably similar in ways that we're unable to explain.

We meet Ellen Baxter as the quintessential "trophy wife," gorgeous enough to be briefly mistaken for Princess Diana when arriving at the Paris Ritz. Ellen has her moment in the intrusive glare of the photographers' flashes, but is released from their scrutiny as soon as the mistake becomes apparent. She's in town with her brilliant, stodgy husband while he attends a conference.      

The next morning brings a flood of breaking news of Diana's death. (I remember very well awakening to the news myself -- August 1997 -- and being unexpectedly tearful in front of the television. Diana had her faults, as we all do, but managed to be a beacon of kindness and heart in the midst of all she endured. Her legacy lives on.)

Ellen anticipates shopping, a tour of Notre Dame, and a nice lunch somewhere. Instead, she goes to the crash site, finds an unconventional photograph of Diana, and meets the photographer who apparently left it there. On impulse, she takes the photograph with her; from then on, she hears Diana's voice in her head and experiences some of Diana's emotions and physical feelings in her own body. This confluence becomes a powerful tool for Ellen to gain insight into Diana's life and, significantly, into her own.

This is a wonderful novel. Once we accept the premise that the italics in the text represent Diana's voice and make peace with the idea of treating a real person as a character in a novel, Ellen's journey of re-self-discovery grips our attention. Ellen's grown accustomed to being an afterthought, a mere accessory to her successful husband, hardly anything more. If we have a shred of that feeling of erasure in our own experience, we will relate. With Diana as a guide and commentator and Ellen as a companion, we seek our own re-self-discovery. And isn't that what literature is for?   

Excerpt:

And the next morning, I'm back in our room from the site of her fatal crash, lying in bed watching TV and thinking about calling my mother, and I'm still wishing I'd thanked Diana for that.

I think, -- Maybe that -- all of it, some of it -- would have meant something to her. Maybe if I'd told her she gave a lot of women who felt like failures the courage to hold their heads up high, she would have taken it with her to her grave a few hours later.

And she says, Thank you, Ellen.

I sit up. It hasn't occurred to me that she could hear my thoughts.

I think, -- You're welcome.

That's not how it felt, though, she says.

Then she's quiet.

I think to myself, -- Wow.

And then to her, -- What did it feel like?  

Florida, Long Ago

Many years ago -- about 10,000 years, to be specific -- the peninsula of Florida was inhabited by a plethora of animals and plants, and by tribes of early humans who made their living by hunting and gathering. David O'Connor's novel The Beast and the Silent Blue brings this time to life through woven storylines of mentorship, tribal politics, and the appearance of the Beast, with many indications that it is the last of its kind.    

Another intriguing aspect of this novel is its geographical connection to the area we now call Paynes Prairie, a wilderness preserve near Gainesville, Florida, where bison and wild horses still roam.   

Through the eyes of Old One, a hunter whose prime is past, we learn the history of these people. Only the children still look to him for guidance, but it's clear that he has both knowledge and wisdom that surpass the current leaders, and especially the current leader, The Strong One, who seems to revere power and the exercise of force above all else. Old One feels he is becoming a burden to the tribe, because an injury has left him unable to hunt with the others. But he stays on the periphery to teach the children, contribute small game when he can, and keep watch on an ominous situation: The Strong One has his eye on one of Old One's students, a girl who is not receptive to The Strong One's intentions. Old One hopes to protect her but he's not sure how to accomplish that.

The appearance of the Beast -- or rather, the calls and tracks of the Beast -- brings a crisis of a different kind to the village, accompanied by the appearance of a competing band of early humans called The Strangers. Only the Old One's memory and cunning give the village a chance of success.  

I have long resisted pre-historic novels, but this tale won me over. I felt I was learning a tremendous amount about pre-historic life in Florida. If it was difficult for me to fully "suspend my disbelief" and sink fully into the story, that's on me. It's engrossing, fast-paced, intriguing, and mysterious. Old One's tale of late-life usefulness and understanding keeps us reading, reflects his time, and touches us all.

Excerpt:

[Old One] sniffed to scrutinize the smell. His heart thumped in his chest as if he were actually seeing the animal charge rather than only anticipating its presence. The odor was unmistakable. It was not the familiar smell of deer or the rarer peppery smell of cat. It hurled him back in time to the small child at the core of what he had become. Struggling to stand, he took the risk of exposure.

He stepped to the side and leaned out to check the blind spot of the tree's crown. It, too, was empty. But the smell set afire his awareness. And there was the disturbed ground, the uprooted scallions, a moist lump of excrement. It was alive. It was somewhere near. The Beast had returned.   

Note: This book counts toward the Color Coded Reading Challenge and the Mount TBR Reading Challenge.

Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2025 - My Sign-Up

I'm feeling optimistic today, so I'm not only going to rejoin the Mount TBR Reading Challenge for 2025 but rejoin at a higher level. I have failed to conquer Mount Blanc (24 books) in the past, but hey, maybe this is the year! 

Bev at My Reader's Block runs a great challenge and I have actually whittled down my TBR stacks a bit with her gentle encouragement. New books still come in (of course!), but at least some older ones get checked off the list and then often go out to another reader with a taste for literature. 

Some books have been languishing on my TBR list for years and it sure feels good to move them onto the DR list (the Done Read List is here, if you're interested). This challenge helps keep me focused on the target of being well read, rather than chasing around at random, subject to whatever catches my fancy. I still do my share of impulse reading, too. It's a nice mix! 

If you're looking for a similar guiding influence, join this challenge anytime during the year via the sign-up here.

Mount Blanc, here I come! See you at the summit! 

1. The Great Hippopotamus Hotel - Alexander McCall Smith (review)

2. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith (review)

3. The Beast and the Silent Blue - David O'Connor (Florida Book Award) (review)

4. Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver (Pulitzer Prize) (review)

5. Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys (Radcliff's Top 100 Novels) (review)

6. My Name is Asher Lev - Chaim Potok (Pulitzer Prize) (review)

7. A Visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan (Pulitzer Prize) (review)

8. Half the Night is Gone - Amitabha Bagchi (DSC Prize for South Asian Literature) (review)

9. Matrix - Lauren Groff (Florida Book Award) (review)

10. The Rural Life - Verlyn Klinkenborg (review)

11. The Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons from Working Together - Twyla Tharp (review)

12. Alexander Hamilton - Ron Chernow (review)

13. His Lovely Wife - Elizabeth Dewberry (Florida Book Award) (review)

14. The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature - J. Drew Lanham (review)

15. Infinite Country - Patricia Engel (review)

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Color Coded Reading Challenge 2025 - My Sign-Up

 

I love reading by color! It always leads to a variety of books that I probably wouldn't put together on my own. 

Bev at My Reader's Block is a fine challenge hostess, providing enough structure for comfort without any fluff. It's the best of both worlds! Here's the sign-up link and you can join anytime during 2025.

Here's what 2025 looks like for me:

Blue: Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys (Radcliff's Top 100 Novels) (review)

Red: A Visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan (Pulitzer Prize) (review)

Yellow: The Beast and the Silent Blue - David O'Connor (Florida Book Award) (review)

Green: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith (review)

Brown: My Name is Asher Lev - Chaim Potok (Pulitzer Prize) (review)

Black: His Lovely Wife - Elizabeth Dewberry (Florida Book Award) (review)

White: The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt (Pulitzer Prize) Substitute: The Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons for Working Together - Twyla Tharp (review)

Another color (teal): Half the Night is Gone - Amitabha Bagchi (DSC Prize for South Asian Literature) (review)

Implies Color: Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver (Pulitzer Prize) (review)

Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2024 - My Wrap-Up

I chose wisely this year, electing to attempt Pike's Peak, the smallest mountain: 12 books. I have failed to summit Mont Blanc (24 books) in previous years, so I learned my lesson. It's hard for me to avoid being distracted by new books on a regular basis. What can I say? I like to zigzag.

This is my 8th year in this challenge (I skipped 2017 for some reason) and I enjoy it very much It's good motivation to make progress on my various prize lists and stay on task -- mostly.

Here's how it went this year:

1. The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields (Pulitzer Prize)

2. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon (Pulitzer Prize) 

3. The Vaster Wilds - Lauren Groff (Florida Book Award)

4. Half Wild - Robin MacArthur 

5. Please Look After Mom - Kyung-Sook Shin (Asian Literary Prize)

6. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho 

7. The Night Watchman - Louise Erdrich (Pulitzer Prize)

8. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz (Pulitzer Prize)

9. Milkman - Anna Burns (Booker Prize)

10. Let Us Descend - Jesmyn Ward 

11. Pocketful of Poseys - Thomas Reed (Florida Book Award) 

12. March - Geraldine Brooks

Reviews are posted here or you can find them under the Reviews tab.   

There's a very satisfying variety here. And there are 4 Pulitzer winners, a Booker winner, an Asian Literary Prize winner, and 2 Florida Book Award medalists -- not bad progress on my reading lists -- and even those that aren't prize winners were well worth my time and effort. All in all, a very successful year.

I also must say that I read 24 books this year and that tempts me to set my sights on Mont Blanc in 2025. We shall see! 

The Color Coded Reading Challenge 2019 - My Sign-Up

Well, that was fast! No sooner did I finish this challenge for 2018 than I decided to go ahead and put in for next year.

Bev at My Reader's Block runs a pleasantly relaxed challenge and I enjoy the way it pushes me to read my chosen books without giving me too many rules to follow. As one example of this, the colors can be in the book titles or appear on the cover. That makes it easy to mine my TBR pile for books that will work.

Sign up here if you want to join in. 

My books:

Red: Chinaman - Shehan Karunatiliaka (DSC Prize) Substitute: Pennant Race - Jim Brosnan (review)
Yellow: Whiteman - Tony D'Souza (Florida Book Award) (review coming soon)
Green: Mud Season - Ellen Stimson (review)
Blue: A Fable - William Faulkner (Pulitzer Prize) Substitute: A Thousand Acres - Jane Smiley (Pulitzer Prize) (review)
Brown: The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love - Oscar Hijuelos (Pulitzer Prize) (review coming soon)
Black: Please Look After Mom - Kyung-Sook Shin (Asian Literary Prize) Substitute: Circe - Madeline Miller (review coming soon)
White: Abide with Me - Elizabeth Strout Substitute: Tinkers - Paul Harding (review)
Any other color: Pink: Rebecca - Daphne de Maurier  Substitute: The Magnificent Ambersons - Booth Tarkington (review)
Implied color: Shadow: The Shadow of Sirius - W.S. Merwin (Pulitzer Prize) Rainbow: The Colors of All the Cattle - Alexander McCall Smith (review)

The Color Coded Reading Challenge 2018 - My Wrap-Up

Whoo hoo! I'm finished!

True to form, I read the last book a while back but have just now posted that one last review.

Here's what I read this year, and a nice variety it is, too. Lots of prize winners, plus a couple of books that had been on my TBR list for a long time, despite the fact that they didn't win anything. Settings ran the gamut from Florida to China, while subject matter ranged from monarch butterflies to near-fatal depression to Japanese garden design and mysterious events during World War II. A little fiction, a little poetry -- this mixed bag was all good and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Blue: Flight Behavior - Barbara Kingsolver (Orion Book Award finalist)
Red: The Boat to Redemption - Su Tong (Asian Literary Prize)
Yellow: A Travel Guide for Reckless Hearts: Stories - N.M. Kelby (Florida Book Award)
Green: The Garden of Evening Mists - Tan Twan Eng (Asian Literary Prize)
Brown: The Body Artist - Don DeLillo
Black: Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness - William Styron
White: The Finkler Question - Howard Jacobson (Booker Prize)
Any other color: Orange: Three Sisters - Bi Feiyu (Asian Literary Prize)
Implied color: Light: The Light Around the Body - Robert Bly (National Book Award for Poetry)

My reviews are under the Reviews tab, if you're interested.

I really enjoy this challenge -- it's low intensity and has a little bit of the thrill of the chase built into it. The fact that I've always had an affinity for things organized around the color spectrum probably has something to do with it, too. Displays like this make me happy (even when they're not made out of cute shoes).

Photo: Zappos

I can't wait to sign up for next year!

Touring Florida

Despite my reservations about short stories -- they're too much, too soon for my taste -- N.M. Kelby's slim volume A Travel Guide for Reckless Hearts drew me in. By the end I was thoroughly enjoying her take on the uniqueness that is Florida.

Kelby has a nice ear and seems to have done her research and/or put her growing up time in Florida to good use. These stories are infused with Florida flavor, but Kelby manages to avoid cramming in too many quirky details, striking a healthy balance. Her ability to hold back just a little also gives her characters the sheen of authenticity, where just one more unusual attribute might have shone false.

And so we have Nordan and Sara, who like each other but aren't quite sure they want to have an affair. We have the uncomfortable daughter of an eccentric widowed mother who's hell-bent on jettisoning her past life for a new one in Florida, with a new beau. We have Bill, a truck driver who's in love -- maybe -- with a former Weeki Wachee mermaid who's dangerous or crazy or a good bit of both. We have Mason, an older lady who spends a lot of time at the airport without ever getting on a plane, rebooking her ticket to Chicago again and again. And so on.

Very engaging, very well written, very Florida.

Excerpt:

Sometimes at night, they sit on the steps of his house, a tiny two bedroom painted the color of a peach left too long on the branch. Bill's head on her lap, she tells him the legends of mermaids. For example, how in Ireland they're called "Selkies" and could be either a seal or a woman--though not both at the same time.

"They're addicted to love, you know," she said. "They sneak onshore, shed their seal skins, take on as many lovers as they can. When they're done with 'em, they drown 'em."

"I'll make a note of that," Bill laughed.

When they were together, he laughed all the time. And so did she. He liked to hear her voice, the calliope of its music. Liked to watch her hair trail down her back in the moonlight. He could listen to her for hours. And did. But now he wants answers. Things have gotten out of hand. 

Note: This book counts toward the Color Coded Reading Challenge (yellow) and the Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2018. 

The Color Coded Reading Challenge 2018 - My Sign-Up

I love the Color Coded Reading Challenge and am back this year, using the TBR shelf exclusively. Yay for that!

Bev at My Reader's Block is a friendly and efficient hostess who's also an avid and accomplished reader, so if you're so inclined, join in for some extra incentive and whole lot of inspiration!

The rules (posted here) are easy to follow. Basically, you read a book with any shade of the required colors either in the title or featured prominently on the cover. You also get two "freebies" of your own choice: a color that's not on the list and a color that's implied (rainbow, spectrum, etc.). 

Colors, here we come!

Blue: Flight Behavior - Barbara Kingsolver (Orion Book Award finalist) (review)
Red: The Boat to Redemption - Su Tong (Asian Literary Prize) (review)
Yellow: Something to Answer For - P.H. Newby (Booker Prize) Substitute: A Travel Guide for Reckless Hearts: Stories - N.M. Kelby (Florida Book Award) (review)
Green: The Garden of Evening Mists - Tan Twan Eng (Asian Literary Prize) (review)
Brown: The Body Artist - Don DeLillo (review)
Black: Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders (Booker Prize) Substitute: The Road - Cormac McCarthy) (Pulitzer Prize) Substitute: Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness - William Styron (review)
White: The Finkler Question - Howard Jacobson (Booker Prize) (review)
Any other color: Orange: Three Sisters - Bi Feiyu (Asian Literary Prize) (review)
Implied color: Light: All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr (Pulitzer) Substitute: The Light Around the Body - Robert Bly (National Book Award for Poetry) (light is all the colors, get it?) (review)

Beach (or Elsewhere) Reading

Thrillers aren't my usual genre, but I picked up Randy Wayne White's novel Deceived during a recent bookstore foray, motivated by the Florida Book Award. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience to zoom through this novel, buoyed by the pace of the narrative, the quirky characters, and the charming details of Sanibel Island and its vicinity, where I've spent occasional vacations throughout my life.

The main character here is Hannah Smith, fishing guide, part-time private investigator, island girl, plucky heroine, and love interest for another of White's characters, marine biologist Doc Ford. Hannah is savvy, brave, and resourceful--all of which are excellent qualities for someone who finds herself caring for her half-dotty, spunky mother, embarking on a love affair, investigating a historic artifacts/land grab scam and a shady new resident, figuring out who among her new acquaintances she can trust, and escaping from hair-raising situations like being attacked simultaneously by a duo of pit bulls and a gigantic person wielding an axe.

It's a thrill a minute, which made it very entertaining light-ish reading, perfect for holding your attention beside your favorite body of water. I blew through it in a couple of days . . . and it definitely took my mind off worrying and wondering while I spent a lot of hospital time waiting for lab results and procedure outcomes while Kayak Guy (quite unexpectedly) underwent a heart catheterization for a major angina episode. He ended up with a stent to open a blocked artery and a bunch of medications. I ended up with the perfect distraction.

Excerpt:

"Anyone up there?" Then added a lie in case I had cornered an intruder. "The police are here! We're worried about you, Miz Helms."

The silence I expected was jolted by a new sound coming from outside the house; a distant noise that touched my ears as the random snaring of a drum. Then the sound deepened and took form, and I thought, Barking dogs! Dogs coming toward the house at a run; a slathering chorus I recognized from hunting with my Uncle Jake in the Everglades as a girl. It was the bellow of catch dogs that had picked up the scent and were on the heels of game.

Pit bulls. The Helms dogs had returned.

Dear god, I thought, remembering: You left the front door open!

Note: I read this as part of my quest to read all the Florida Book Award winners. It counts towards the 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge and as the letter S in the Where are You Reading? Challenge.

A Mixed Bag

I might as well say it: I've never liked short stories, and I suspect I never will. Just when I start to get into them, they're over. And then I'm expected to start over again with another one, as though nothing happened.

Okay, now that we've got that out of the way: I chose Enid Shomer's short stories collection, Tourist Season, a Florida Book Award gold medalist, as the "color of choice" entry for the Color Coded Reading Challenge, partly because of the lovely shade on the cover (pale aqua? transparent turquoise?) and partly because I suspected that if I made it that far in the challenge I'd need something I could zoom through quickly. Then I doubled it into the Mount TBR Reading Challenge as well.

And so, here we are. What to say about these shiny little gems of the genre? They're nicely crafted. They're peopled with interesting characters. They cleverly capture the sometimes wonderful weirdness that is Florida, and Shomer gets most of the details right. They're also a little wacky, a little forced at times, leaving a slight aftertaste of "too much" on my literary palate. Chalk that last one up to my preference for longer works, where things have time to develop at a reasonable pace.

Shomer has a good eye for a situation. Once she gets the set-up going, she can be quite adept at stepping out of the way and letting the characters take over. So we have Iris, who's been chosen as the next Buddhist saint, never mind that she's Jewish. We have Frieda, frustrated with her recently retired husband because she married him for better or for worse--"But not for lunch." We have Abby, for whom a fender bender turns into something more. Those stories are Shomer at her best.  

We also have death by rapture while SCUBA diving, a grandmother who turns into a wolf (literally), a twenty-year-old who starts with small thrilling crimes and moves on from there, and a smattering of other women. These stories seemed more contrived, less genuine, and ultimately less successful. Even so, I thoroughly enjoyed sifting through Shomer's efforts, knowing that if I didn't care for one of her creations, another would be along soon.

Excerpt (from "Tourist Season"):

When her husband, Milt, retired, it was as if a bell that Frieda had heard ringing pleasantly in the distance all her life began striking right next to her head. Milt was everywhere she turned. "We're on our second honeymoon," he'd say, jollying her into another game of bingo, another round of golf. After four months of solid togetherness, while she was lying on the wicker settee on the balcony, Frieda daydreamed that Milt had dropped dead. Tears sprang to her eyes as she pictured him laid out in a casket, looking perfectly healthy. Deeply ashamed of her thoughts, she began to ponder ways for him to spend his time.

Family as Microcosm

"A costly delicacy indeed, when to get to the heart you must kill the tree."

Heart of Palm begins with this epigraphic statement and in some ways tells you everything you need to know from the very first page.

This is the story of the Bravos, told at first in a prologue which left me curiously unengaged with the story of how the parents in question, Dean and Arla, met, married, and almost immediately began the string of disasters that passed for family life. I had trouble with the prologue; it seemed to be trying too hard, namedropping right and left in a self-conscious effort to be quirky and charming, and perhaps also to establish the author's Florida cred. (She gets almost all of the details right, by the way.) Despite the prologue, I found myself thoroughly engrossed in the story soon after it stopped being a summary.

Once it gets going, it really gets going. There's a little bit of everything jumbled together here, much as Florida is a jumble of its own. Dean disappears, while Arla soldiers on with their children in an increasingly dilapidated Queen Anne house. Daughter Sofia lives at home and has what one can politely call "issues," son Carson has a morally and financially precarious life in nearby St. Augustine, and son Frank capably sustains the family restaurant business while longing to be somewhere else, specifically a very un-Florida cabin in the mountains. An adorable dog, a disbarred lawyer, a pushy real estate agent, and a host of other colorful characters round out the picture of life in Utina, a backwater Florida town just being "discovered" by developers and the rich.

This could be a romp, but it's more like a swim on the surface of tannic water when you know a gator probably lurks below.  The Bravos must decide whether to sell their unique property on the Intracoastal Waterway, knowing they are one of the first dominoes to fall in Utina. As the temptation of "big money" soaks into their consciousness, they find themselves facing up to their family legacy of tragedy, guilt, regret, and longing, poorly equipped to make a decision presented in so many shades of gray.

All this creates a microcosm for Florida itself: the layers of history, much of it tragic; the inevitability of change; and the destruction of the natural landscape and the local way of life by those who come here for the small town charm but still want their Publix, Starbucks, and Wal-Mart.

What's surprising is the amount of reconciliation and healing that can be found in this story. For all their bruises and wounds, conflicts and failings, the Bravos somehow discover that what they have in common is immutable. And that holds hope for Florida, as well. Even swimming in that tannic water, maybe you're safe after all.

(This Florida Book Award silver medal winner serves as the blue book in the Color Coded Reading Challenge and doubles up for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge. Clever, huh?)

Excerpt:

[Arla] walked out to the back deck, where the reflection of the moon was now splintered across the water and the cries of the barred owls had begun to echo in the trees. She'd had too many glasses of wine, she knew, though she didn't particularly care. She clutched her cane in one hand and her purse in the other and made her way to the end of the boat dock. She looked left, to the distant glow of the porch light at Aberdeen. She looked right, to where Morgan's restaurant had stood years before. Along the reedy shore, in the light of the full moon, were a series of small, newly cut wooden posts, each tied with a bright red band. Surveyors' marks, she supposed. The beginning. Or the end, depending on how you looked at it.

Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2016

This will do it for me this year. Really it will. I'll probably post a few more of the on-going lists, but this is it for challenges in 2016.

Unless something irresistible comes along, of course.

Overlaps are specifically allowed for this challenge, but I already committed to 9 books, so it didn't seem fair to choose only 12. Why not push ahead, yes? So I've chosen the Mount Blanc level of 24 books that have been "waiting in the wings for weeks...months...even years" -- as eloquently expressed by the sign-up post at My Reader's Block.

The last 5 slots are blank because yikes, I might need some oxygen along the way! Especially if my calculations are correct and when I finish that 19th book I'll have read all the Booker Winners -- cause for celebration at the end of a long road!

Sign-ups go through November 1st, if you're interested.

1. Heart of Palm - Laura Lee Smith (Florida Book Award) finished 6/18/16 (review)
2. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel (Booker Prize) finished 7/5/16 (review)
3. The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver (Orange/Baileys Prize) finished 8/9/16 (review)
4. The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller (Orange/Baileys Prize) finished 8/13/16 (review)
5. The Famished Road - Ben Okri (Booker Prize) finished 9/10/16 (review)
6. Narcopolis - Jeet Thayil (DSC Prize) finished 10/20/16 (review)
7. The Lowland - Jhumpa Lahiri (DSC Prize) finished 10/30/16 (review)
8. Tourist Season - Enid Shomer (Florida Book Award) finished 11/3/16 (review)
9. Ilustrado - Miguel Syjuco (Man Asian Prize) finished 1/16/17 (too late!) (review)
10. Life and Times of Michael K - J.M. Coetzee (Booker Prize)
11. Rites of Passage - William Golding (Booker Prize)
12. Schindler's Ark - Thomas Kenally (Booker Prize)
13. Holiday - Stanley Middleton (Booker Prize)
14. Something to Answer For - P.H. Newby (Booker Prize)
15. The Elected Member - Bernice Rubens (Booker Prize)
16. The Finkler Question - Howard Jacobson (Booker Prize)
17. Bring up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel (Booker Prize) finished 7/13/16 (review)
18. The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Richard Flanagan (Booker Prize)
19. A Brief History of Seven Killings - Marlon James (Booker Prize)
20. TBD The Survival of the Bark Canoe - John McPhee finished 7/14/16 (review)
21. TBD The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection - Alexander McCall Smith finished 7/15/16 (review)
22. TBD Islands in the Stream - Ernest Hemingway finished 9/10/16 (review)
23. TBD
24. TBD

The Color Coded Reading Challenge 2016

I'm late to the party, but . . . . Whatever.

Nine books in 2016 (only 6 months for me, because yikes, it's already June), chosen because they have certain colors in the title or on the cover: shades of blue, red, yellow, green, brown, black, and white, plus one color of your choice, plus one with a word that implies color (rainbow, paisley, stripe, etc.).

This challenge is chosen in accordance with my personal rule -- newly enacted just today -- that I will not accept any challenges that require the reading of books that aren't already on my TBR List. The TBR List grows just fine on its own, thank you very much.

Anyone not filled up with challenge reading already is welcome to check out My Reader's Block and join in. Then at least I'll be ahead of one person!

Here's my list:

Blue: Heart of Palm - Laure Lee Smith (Florida Book Award) finished 6/18/16 (review)
Red: Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel (Booker Prize) finished 7/5/16 (review)
Yellow: The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver (Orange/Baileys Prize) finished 8/9/16 (review)
Green: The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller (Orange/Baileys Prize) finished 8/13/16 (review)
Brown: The Famished Road - Ben Okri (Booker Prize) finished 9/10/16 (review)
Black: Narcopolis - Jeet Thayil (DSC Prize) finished 10/20/16 (review)
White: The Lowland - Jhumpa Lahiri (DSC Prize) finished 10/30/16 (review)
Choice: Tourist Season - Enid Shomer (pale aqua) (Florida Book Award) finished 11/3/16 (review)
Implied: Ilustrado - Miguel Syjuco (you have to illustrate with colors, or at least with black and white, right?) (Man Asian Prize) finished 1/16/17 (too late!) (review)

List Readers, Take Note!

I found a new book award! Those of us who like to read prize winners may want to jump on the bandwagon. As a Florida resident, I'll be feeling all local while I'm searching out and reading these.

They have lots of categories, too, so there is something here for everyone. Whether you are interested in Children's Literature, Florida Nonfiction, General Fiction, Poetry, Popular Fiction, Visual Arts, Young Adult Literature, or Spanish Language Books, you'll find something here. And there are gold, silver, and bronze medal winners, which beefs up the list for an award that was started in 2006.

I'll be reading the General Fiction category, and then maybe the Poetry. (Update: As of 2019, this award seems to be tapering off General Fiction in favor of Popular Fiction, which I am not going to read. If there are gaps in the list, this is the reason.)   

Blue means I have them on my TBR shelf. Green means I am still looking to see them for the first time.

The Florida Book Awards (website)

General Fiction

2024 Gold: Dressing the Saints - Aracelis Gonzalez Asendorf

2024 Silver: The Best That You Can Do - Amina Gautier

2024 Bronze: Bomb Island - Stephen Hundley

2023 Gold: The Vaster Wilds - Lauren Groff

2023 Silver: The Beast and the Silent Blue - David O'Connor

2023 Bronze: Pocketful of Poseys - Thomas Reed  

2022 Gold: All Day Is a Long Time - David Sanchez

2022 Silver: Spillway - Kim Bradley

2022 Bronze: How We Disappear - Tara Lynn Masih

2021 Gold: Matrix - Lauren Groff

2021 Silver: Infinite Country - Patricia Engel

2021 Bronze: Milk Blood Heat - Daniel W. Moniz

2021 Bronze: The Rock Eaters - Brenda Peynado

2020: No award

2019 Gold: Cigar City - Paul Wilborn 

2018 Gold: Worm Fiddling Nocturne in the Key of a Broken Heart - Kimberly Lojewski
2018 Silver: All My Sins Remembered - Ron Cooper
2018 Bronze: The Girl From Blind River: A Novel - Gale Massey
2017 Gold: The Ice House - Laura Lee Smith
2017 Silver: Crimes in a Second Language - Elizabeth Sims
2017 Bronze: Mangrove Lightning - Randy Wayne White
2016 Gold: The Other Traitor - Sharon Potts
2016 Silver: Sparrow in the Wind - S. Rose
2016 Bronze: The Melting Season - Ira Sukrungruang (PB)
2015 Gold: I'd Walk With My Friends If I Could Find Them - Jesse Goolsby
2015 Silver: Free to Be - Gracie L. Chandler
2015 Bronze: The Headmaster’s Darlings - Katherine Clark (HB)
2014 Gold: The Invention of Wings - Sue Monk Kidd
2014 Silver: The Heaven of Animals - David James Poissant
2014 Bronze: The Sheltering - Mark Powell
2013 Gold: Deceived - Randy Wayne White
2013 Silver: Heart of Palm - Laura Lee Smith
2013 Bronze: Beneath Hallowed Ground - Steven P. Locklin
2012 Gold: Live by Night - Dennis Lehane
2012 Silver: American Ghost - Janis Owens
2012 Bronze: Plunder - Mary Anna Evans
2011 Gold: Magpies - Lynne Barrett
2011 Silver: The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady - Elizabeth Stuckey-French
2011 Bronze: Coming To: A Midwestern Tale - Caren Umbarger
2010 Gold: The Gendarme - Mark Mustain (HB)
2010 Silver: Vida - Patricia Engel (PB)

2010 Bronze: Nothing Happens Until it Happens to You - T.M. Shine
2010 Bronze: Cookie and Me - Mary Jane Ryals
2009 Gold: A Travel Guide for Reckless Hearts: Stories - N.M. Kelby
2009 Silver: Bridge of Sand - Janet Burroway (HB)
2009 Bronze: The Last War - Ana Menendez
2009 Bronze: Good Things I Wish You - A. Manette Ansay
2008 Gold: Requiem, Mass. - John Dufresne
2008 Silver: The Konkans - Tony D'Souza
2008 Bronze: Matters of Faith - Kristy Kiernan (PB)
2008 Bronze: Confessions of a Falling Woman - Debra Dean
2007 Gold: Tourist Season - Enid Shomer 
2007 Silver: You Can't Get There from Here - Leonard Nash
2007 Bronze: Origin - Diana Abu-Jaber 
2007 Bronze: Ticket to the Moon - Uthaya Kumar
2006 Gold: Whiteman - Tony D'Souza

2006 Silver: Nature Girl - Carl Hiaasen (DNR)
2006 Bronze: His Lovely Wife - Elizabeth Dewberry (HB)

Poetry 

2024 Gold: 2000 Blacks - Ajibola Tolase

2024 Silver: Bright Life, Animal Heart - Laura Minor

2024 Bronze: Homeland of Swarms - Oriette D'Angelo

2023 Gold: Saltwater Demands a Psalm - Kweku Abimbola

2023 Silver: Buffalo Girl - Jessica Q. Stark

2023 Bronze: Everwhen - Anne Barngrover

2023 Chapbook Gold: One Way to Listen - Asa Drake
2022 Gold: Worrisome Creatures - Kate Sweeney

2022 Silver: Thunderbird Inn - Collin Callahan

2022 Bronze: Field Notes from the Flood Zone - Heather Sellers

2022 Chapbook Gold: Concussion Fragment - Brendan Walsh

2021 Gold: Danzirly - Gloriz Munoz

2021 Silver: Pine - Julia Koets

2021 Bronze: The Places That Hold - John Davis, Jr. 

2020 Gold: Love Song to the Demon-Possessed Pigs of Gadara - William Fargason

2020 Silver: Earnest, Earnest? - Eleanor Boudreau

2020 Bronze: Sacrificial Metal - Esther Lee

2019 Gold: Sweet World - Maureen Seaton
2019 Silver: Nouns & Verbs: New and Selected Poems - Campbell McGrath
2019 Bronze: Undoll - Tanya Grae
2018 Gold: When Rap Spoke Straight to God - Erica Dawson 
2018 Silver: How the End First Showed - D. M. Aderibigbe
2018 Bronze: Barnburner - Erin Hoover
2017 Gold: Calling a Wolf a Wolf - Kaveh Akbar
2017 Silver: Mud Song - Terry Ann Thaxton 
2017 Bronze: The Frozen Harbor - Michael Hettich
2016 Gold: The Abridged History of Rainfall - Jay Hopler
2016 Silver: Latest Volcano - Tana Jean Welch  
2016 Bronze: Hour of the Ox - Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello 
2015 Gold: Gog - Brandi George
2015 Silver: Awaiting Your Impossibilities - Donald Morrill
2015 Bronze: The Crossing - Jonathan Fink
2014 Gold: SLANT SIX - Erin Belieu
2014 Silver: On the Street of Divine Love - Barbara Hamby
2014 Bronze: The Small Blades Hurt - Erica Dawson
2013 Gold: About Crows - Craig Blais
2013 Silver: The Biscuit Joint - David Kirby
2013 Bronze: The Terrible Wife - Terry Ann Thaxton (PB)
2012 Gold: In the Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys - Campbell McGrath
2012 Silver: Exit Island - Terri Witek (PB)
2012 Bronze: Grace to Leave - Lola Haskins (PB)
2011 Gold: Cracks in the Invisible - Stephen Kampa
2011 Silver: Talking about Movies with Jesus - David Kirby
2011 Bronze: MoonFlower - Gianna Russo
2010 Gold: Honeycomb - Carol Frost
2010 Silver: Still, the Mountain - Lola Haskins
2010 Bronze: Five Kingdoms - Kelle Groom
2009 Gold: Shannon - Campbell McGrath
2008 Gold: The Temple Gate Called Beautiful - David Kirby
2008 Silver: Seven Notebooks - Campbell McGrath (PB)
2008 Bronze: The Shipwreck Dress - Terri Witek (PB)
2008 Bronze: Begin Anywhere - Frank Giampietro
2008 Bronze: Shimming the Glass House - Helen Pruitt Wallace
2007 Gold: House on Boulevard Street - David Kirby (PB)
2007 Silver: Fata Morgana - J. Reginald Shepherd
2007 Bronze: Compulsions of Silkworms and Bees - Julianna Baggott
2006 Gold: My Psychic - James Kimbrell
2006 Silver: Green Squall - Jay Hopler
2006 Bronze: The Contracted World - Peter Meinke (PB)
2006 Bronze: Luckily - Kelle Groom (PB)